by Welcome again to HDR News! In this issue we’re all about winter landscape photography. Why shoot landscapes in winter? The sun is lower in the sky producing a unique quality of light, spectacular weather events turn a typical scene into a memorable one and famous places to shoot, like National Parks, are devoid of humans! To help you in your quest for great winter landscapes we show you very useful composition strategies that go way beyond the Rule Of Thirds but are actually useful. We bring you a very cerebral interview with an award winning photographer that will have you thinking a lot deeper about the images you’re trying to make. And, there are tons of great landscape photos all through these articles. Enjoy, stay warm and keep dry!
Five Compositional Patterns Worth Finding In Nature
The tried and true Rule Of Thirds provides an initial compositional guideline in most genres of photography, including landscape photography. But you can dive deeply into nature and discover that there are lines and patterns that can be compositionally more intricate and valuable than the standard rules. This article by esteemed landscape photographer Erin Babnik describes the five dominant patters she looks for in a scene to help make order of nature’s seeming randomness. With names like The Plunge and The Echo they become memorable and useful. The article uses her fantastic landscapes to illustrate each of her patterns. The images alone are worth spending some time ingesting this info.
Dive into composition HERE.
Erin Babnik
Babnik’s landscapes are so strong we’re investing a second mention of her work. Babnik won Capture Landscape’s Photographer Of The Year award and this article is an in-depth interview with the photographer where she reveals the cerebral way in which she approaches her craft. One of our favorite quotes in the interview: “A famous art historian described Greek sculpture as having ’noble simplicity and quiet grandeur’ and I think those are the qualities I gravitate toward in my photography.” For Babnik, photography goes way beyond just clicking the shutter.
Experience the interview and some more great images HERE.
Capturing Light In Landscape Photography
If you are dedicated to landscape photography you will reach the point where snapping a mountain or seaside scene at dusk just doesn’t do it for you any more. At that point, the weather becomes your friend and inspiration. As Ansel Adams knew, a clearing storm is all about photographic opportunity. In this article pro landscape shooter and educator Mark Metterich delivers hard-earned advice on how to predict and photograph landscapes where weather is the unique element.
Learn to deal with the weather HERE.
Top Ten National Parks To Photograph In Winter
Being alone and communing with nature can be difficult to do in one of our National Parks. If you’ve ever visited a National Park during the summer, on a non-summer weekend or school holiday you’ll surely have the memory of long lines of cars and more people than you ever wanted to experience. That’s not very conducive to thoughtful landscape photography. There is a solution however: visit your favorite park in winter. The snowy scenes and breathtaking weather events make for exceptional photo opportunities. Some parks particularly stand out in winter and this article will identify them for you.
See which National Parks shine in winter HERE.
Five Best Cameras For Landscape Photography Right Now
The gear-head in us is never far from surfacing and, we often steer you toward a dpReview article on the newest camera. This time we wanted to hear from a new voice and have the gear info delivered in a clean, concise way. In our search we found Zarina, the creator of the Digital World Beauty website. She provides a robust look at not only Sony, Canon and Nikon cameras but also Pentax. In the article she links to a few dpReview videos to deliver a nice overview. This article is about equipment that gets the job done. Check it out.
Read about the best cameras for landscape photography HERE.
A Nice Little Landscape Website
In doing the research for this edition of HDR News we ran across the website of Sarah Marino and Ron Coscorrosa. They are a nomadic couple based in southwestern Colorado who travel to locations in their “silvery” Airstream trailer. They create wonderful landscape and nature photographs and produce valuable photo tutorials. A visit to their site is like visiting the home of your favorite shooting partner. Nice people and nice photography await you.
See the photos and the instructional guides HERE.